Nexus 7 charging problem fix after 4.2 Jelly Bean

One of the most popular tablet purchases of 2012 has been the Google Nexus 7 made by Asus. This was released in July running the brand new Android operating system at the time, 4.1 Jelly Bean and then 4.2 Jelly Bean became available for the pure Android Nexus device. However the Nexus 7 hasn’t been devoid of problems and we have previously spoken of reports that some units are getting hotter as well as some problems that hit the Nexus 7 after the 4.2 update. It seems that some Nexus 7 users have been hit by a charging problem and we have some details for you of a tip to fix this issue.

Back in November we told readers that the 4.2 Jelly Bean update seemed to have caused some real problems for readers using the Nexus 7 device, with some owners reporting Bluetooth issues, oversensitive autoscreen brightness, the December bug, system suddenly rebooting and much more. By the end of November we were able to tell you about the Android 4.2.1 update and the fact that the rollout meant the Nexus 7 would be receiving fixes for some of the bugs and issues that had struck it. However another issue has been brought to our attention and we have news of what looks like an easy fix for some readers who may be encountering a battery-charging problem.

Droid-Life reports that according to Android Central forum posts a number of people have noticed a Nexus 7 charging issue since 4.2 Jelly Bean. In these cases it seems that letting the device run completely dry or just leaving it idle for long amounts of time, can lead to it being difficult to turn back on or getting it to recharge again. The worst issues seem to occur when the Nexus 7 has been allowed to completely drain of battery power and then when it is connected to a charger the screen simply flashes. In these cases users have found that no amount of button pressing will get the device to turn back on.

However the team at Droid-Life have come up with a fix that worked for their Nexus 7 device and although we can’t guarantee it will also work for yours, it’s certainly worth a try. If you have a dead Nexus 7 then you first need to plug it in to a wall charger and then instantly press both Volume Down and Power simultaneously. At this point you should be able to see the bootloader menu although you may need to experiment with timing and chargers before you see it. Once you can see the bootloader menu you need to hit Volume Down and you will eventually see Power Off Device. Select this with the Power button and once the device turns off then first disconnect the charger and then reconnect it to the device. Hopefully at this point you will see the battery meter showing signs that your Nexus 7 is finally charging again.

Thanks to Droid-Life for that and we really hope that for those readers who are facing the problem of a dead Nexus 7 this fix works. The best other advice is to not let your Android Nexus 7 completely drain and to start topping it up if you see if fall as low as around 10% battery charge to avoid the problem in the first place. We’d really like to hear your thoughts on the Nexus 7 and subsequent problems from 4.2 Jelly Bean. Are you still facing issues such as this battery-charging problem? Maybe a completely different concern has beset your Nexus 7? Let us know with your comments.

The fix worked for me. My Nexus went into powerdown due to a very low battery & then connecting the charger just gave a flickering screen. Connected to wall charger & then hit power & vol down together went through recovery to power doen, disconnected & reconnected & it started charging again – thanks.

I’ve noticed it doesn’t like charging with the non Asus USB, charges better with the correct USB. Also when it charges down and wouldn’t turn on, I just held the power button down for a bit when it’s plugged in, then it will start charging. I haven’t had it stay off for more than a few minutes at best.

Way to go Phones Review. I’m soooooo incredibly sick of video ads starting when I visit the page and blasting out my speakers. I don’t blame hp for trying to advertise their products, but you aren’t even giving me the courtesy of letting me choose to click on or hover over the ad before I get the thumping rock music and advertisement on my browser. I’m so not visiting the site anymore, because I’m sick to death of IN YOUR FACE WHETHER YOU WANT IT OR NOT, WHETHER YOU ARE IN A QUIET ROOM OR NOT ADVERTISING. Buh bye.

I completely agree about noisy flash ads that play automatically. Try downloading Adblock. It’s a free extension that usually solves that problem. The ads are often geared toward your browsing habits and aren’t actually “chosen” by the site to annoy you.

Bought this christmas present working fine downloaded some things to it. Then christmas morning turned on once then when shutdown would not reboot. i did what you recommended and has rebooted but when i shut down again it will not boot even though the battery is full. Is there a fault with it because i am thinking of taking it back and getting a replacement

I cannot get my Bluetooth hearing aid to work with my nexus 7 tablet to work. it says it does see a Bluetooth device. Yet it works fine with my Iphone 3g. To me, Bluetooth is a must because of my hearing handicap.
Can someone help?
Andre

many bluetooth devices can only be connected to one device at a time. try disconnecting the bluetooth hearing aid from the iPhone then try connecting it via discovery mode to the nexus 7. once it gets setup correctly it should be easier to disconnect and connect to each of the devices. hope that helps.

thanks for the help with my nexus 7 i had battery problems and followed you advice and it worked since i am a 60 year old women whose son gave it to her on her birthday i did not want ot call him and tell fhm i had broken it already

Hi I have had my Nexus tablet now for two months, what I want to know is why does it just switch off and on by itself its most frustrating even when the battery is full also sometimes flickers on the screen.

I have tried your fix for my Nexus 7 and it did not fix the problem it is about 2 months old and this is the second time I have had this problem. Any ideas, I really like the tablet but it is frustrating when it is not working/charging right.

My son had his nexus 7 for Christmas and the wifi range is terrible and keeps dropping out. Also the battery lasts only 4-5 hours when only playing games. We are sending it back to Isme for a refund and will invest in something else.

Got a Nexus 7 for my daughter for Xmas ! The battery has run down and now it’s wont charge. I have tried turning on and holding power and volume buttons a number of times now it’s very frustrating ! Do I take it back and get a replacement or can it be fixed ? Not very impressed as she spent most of Xmas without it

Had my Nexus 7 gadget for 4 months, super. Last night realised didn’t seem to be charging but still had a good charge; ran it right down until it switched itself off!! DESPAIR!

Couldn’t remember which site I bought it from, not the most organised guy. Googled to this site and there was a possible answer. Plugged it in,pressed and held the buttons…..screen came to life. RELIEF, ecstasy!!

Plugged in my working nexus 7 (unit still had at least one quarter battery life left )to charger and a few hours later it was dead.Unable to turn on. Fix did not work. Back of unit felt warm and so did the A/C adapter.

I bought Nexus7 on 30/12/12 Got it home would not turn on and would not charge I took
it back to Argos who exchanged it without quibble,even tried the new one in store to make sure it turned on.I got it up to full charge and was reading the information and and browsing to learn how to use tablet etc. After just two hours I went to make cup of tea came back Nexus7 was dead would not turn on and would not charge,only sign of life was when on charger faint flickering on screen and images like falling rain on glass!!
So dissapointed I had read such good reviews before I took the plunge,i just dont know wether there is a bad batch going around or wether it is a common occurance? I dont know if I can bear to risk a third attempt so I will probably just head for a refund tomorrow

Had same problem as everyone else (no recharging, constant reboot-shutdown). Couldn’t get to the boot loader until I swapped to a phone charger and then upon rebooting instantly mannually shutting down and only then pressing power+vol down (when charge icon is showing, which it would only do for a second or two). Really disappointing.

Finally it’s working!!!, I held in the power and volume button at the same time after boot loader screen came up I selected the recovery mode. It says no command for a while then boots up and is charging!!! Yay

This is my third nexus 7 since December 16th!
The first one had severe pixel problems, the second one wouldn’t charge so fingers crossed for a good working one this time!..
I bought all three from Argos and if I encounter any problems with this one I will be changing to a galaxy….
I haven’t had a push to download jellybean yet, should I leave it or is it essential that I do?

Its not a software issue or people`s inability to put it on charge; It is the substandard micro usb cable that gets damaged mechanically at the micro end.
Solution is to get a otg micro usb to female usb adapter & a usb 3 male to male cable (which is much thicker & more robust).
My 1st cable worked properly to begin with & then I noticed it was discharging instead of charging.Also, the charge symbol came up when I moved the cable around at the micro end.Eventually the cable just got worse & would fail unless the cable was adjusted perfectly.Even then it would take all 24 hrs at least!
When I used the usb3 cable the charge rate rocketed to about 40% an hour.
It even charges quickly while in use!

Note that I used a usb3 cable, not 2.Its designed for faster transfer & so will have more amps.
Also, I noticed that the nexus does not detect a charging process so keep an eye on it just in case it overloads.

Having bought both my young sons a Nexus 7 each – I was weary of splashing out alot of money on a product I perceived to be the 2nd choice (as cheaper than Mini iPad & available prior to Xmas 2012).

One of them worked perfectly, whilst the other – we did eventually get it started, downloaded loads of free games plus anti virus, it quickly ran out of charge, then simply would charge at all and we couldn’t turn it on.

We took it back ( to PC World/ Currys) and the exchanged it for another tablet.

Guess what . . . that tablet didn’t work either (at all).

Back to PC World and the KnowHow guy took the thing apart and showed us that the battery had simply become unplugged Inside.

We could see that the battery fitting on these tablets are not good. The Battery is NOT firmly fixed in – but can actually move to a point where it actually disconnects itself from the tablet.

Once re attached – it worked fine, and charges perfectly well. And the tech guy said he had the same problem with several other Nexus 7 tablets which had been returned.

I have had my tablet for 2 weeks now and I am glad that I found this forum. I have been having issues with charging my Nexus 7. One of which directly relates to the instructions above. Today was the first time I could not charge or turn on my tablet. So far I can not use my tablet. …..

This is my first day of major issues (completely nonfunctional)

Additionaly it takes way to long to fully charge. A few nights ago it charged over night (at least 8 hrs) and only charged 20%!!!!!!

I had the same problem and pressed volume down and power lots of times and nothing happened. Suddenly, one time it came on completely normally to full screen, with the battery showing 93% charged. What a relief!

My Nexus 7’s battery level remains at 0%. I’ve tried plugging it in various sockets but it still wont charge. Whenever plug it in, the battery symbol only fills up 3 times then it shuts off again. This fix didn’t work. Anyone please post a new fix!

Justine – Are you sure it actually turns off, I have this problem several times now and when you do this procedure and plug it in and get the screen with battery filling and then it goes dark, but if hit the power button quickly it will show that same flashing battery again, and it takes a good day to charge

I didn’t have this problem until the very latest update, JOP40D. This fix didn’t work, nor did any other that Google search turned up. I contacted Google’s Nexus 7 tech support, but since I had bought the device from Radio Shack I had to contact ASUS instead, which was a nightmare (the unhelpful website yelled at me in Chinese when I tried to enter a SN.) Eventually ASUS contacted me asking me to send the device to them, something I did not want to do unless absolutely necessary. Fortunately, after letting it sit around for a week, it seems to be taking a charge now. We’ll see what happens later today.

Bought this for my mum, she opened the box, it wouldn’t turn on! Thought maybe it needed to charge for first time before it would power up, so plugged it in, but still couldn’t turn it on. It then randomly worked. A few weeks later, I went to use it and wouldn’t turn on again. My dad had been using it in the afternoon with no problems, he doens’t download or play games so wasn’t doing anything that would use the battery instensivly. When I finally got it on, the battery said it still had 94%, so can’t blame a low or run down battery! Help! My parents are not technical and while I will try the advice above, they can’t do this everytime they go to use it. I bought it thinking it was a simpler and cheaper version for them to play with….

I have had different results sometimes when I hold the buttons down static line start moving across the screen and other times the menu comes up and I do as instructed above and the Google logo appears and then going away leaving a dim light on the screen or sometimes static lines.

WOW I thought i was the only one with this issue! If my nexis goes completely dead its extremely difficult to get a charge in it. itll turn on then shut off. i found that when it turns on and you see your wallpaper quickly unplug and plug back in your charging cord and you should see the lighting bolt in the battery.

I had the same problem as you after my baby dropped my nexus a couple of inches. Try removing the back cover and pushing the battery connection in more- mine worked instantly after that. It seems that the connection had come loose. There’s a video further down the page that shows you how to remove the cover- it’s really easy. I wouldn’t recommend using a screwdriver though ( just in case you damage it) – I used my nail to pry the back cover off- worked a treat!

My nexus says its charging but..i let it charge all night and it says 6%…AND I DONT HAVE ENOUGH BATTER FOR THE UPDATE!!!!!!! ive tried everything…i know it says do not leave in for long periods of time….if only i knew that a few weeks ago……is there a fix?

Hy I just update my nuxes 7 to android 4.2.2 and I have same problem with charging I tried the boot loader bootloader method above but it doesn’t work anymore it still drain so fast and not raise charging while its on what should I do now

You need to completely power down the Nexus 7 so that it reboots fully. There are two ways to do this. One is easy, the other is best left to someone comfortable with hardware.

Firstly, plug the Nexus into the charger, on the side of the Nexus hold down the volume down button – now press and hold the power button until the unit turns on. This will put the Nexus into a special boot menu. You will then use the volume buttons to move up and down this menu and power to select. Using the volume buttons select POWER OFF and then tap the power button for (OK) – The Nexus will then shut off. I then recommend unplugging the charger waiting a few seconds and plugging the charger back in. The Nexus should not charge normally.

The other method involves popping off the cover and unplugging the battery. This is something that is commonly done with electronics to completely reset them. However, this may void your warranty to stick with the first option unless it doesn’t work.

One of my sons Nexus units seems to not have this issue but the other one does. Choosing Power Off has so far fixed it every time. It seems to depend on what software is installed on it. The one that doesn’t work is LOADED with junk. After a fix you may try a factory reset to see if that permanently eliminates it or at least makes it uncommon.

Overall I love the Nexus but this is a major issue that we now have to work around.

I never let the Nexus 7 drain all the way, this problem of battery charging immediately showed up after system update last night. It was fully charged but since the update it has been draining continuously, even if connected to a wall charger. Before going to bed I decided to turn off power and let it charge throughout the night – to my surprise, I woke up to find out that it did not charge at all, in fact, it drained farther!! What the F?

My worries turned to frustration when I found out discussions about this issue since 2011!!
This is a serious update bug that has been ignored!

I tried the solution posted here and hope this never happens again, and next time, I will check online for any issues with Android “updates” before accepting them.

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